Basic facial control

Following a very basic tutorial from Stop Staring (second edition) by Jason Osipa, I have learnt how to do facial controls that are reflective of an industry standard setup. By this I mean a setup that uses objects in the actual scene to control the blendshapes, rather than using the blendshape window. This is highly beneficial for the animator, as it is far more user friendly. Check out this quick playblast, you'll see what I mean.

This tutorial has also given me insight into the possibilities of this teqnique. It makes use of the limitations found in the attribute editor, as well as creating and linking expressions to multiple blendshapes. I expect this can also be achieved through channel control and the connections editor, but knowing about expressions has led me to wonder whether or not this can be used to solve my concerns about using set driven keys. Also using the limitations from the attribute editor is particularly useful as you can set it so that you can move an object one way along an axis, but not the other. It's also in this editor where if you do allow it to move the other way, then when linking this to the blendshape it's essentially telling Maya to do the opposite of whatever the blendshape does. This means I only need to create one shape for the wide pose and when moving the slider the other way it will work out the narrow by itself.

It's also important to note here that this particular tutorial from Stop Staring has already removed a preconception of mine about the way the mouth opens and closes. Previously I had assumed that it would just open universally, but of course it does not. Only the lower jaw moves. Obvious now that I think about it, but still I am glad I realised now rather than later.

Needless to say this is going to be extremely useful, as I can use this same technique to create diverse controls for the eyes, brows, and a more expressive mouth.